Button aims to solve Prime tyre issues

12 May 2012 – Heading into the third and final Spanish Grand Prix practice session on Saturday morning, Jenson Button hopes to rectify problems with the harder compound tyre, colloquially known in the paddock as the ‘Prime’. For Barcelona, this is the silver-marked Hard compound, with the ‘Option’ being the yellow-marked Soft.

On Friday, the McLaren driver topped the timesheets and was generally pleased with his car’s performance, despite struggling slightly with the Prime.

“I did a good lap on the Option tyre, the car is running well and our upgrades seem to be working,” explained the 2009 winner. “But there are still some improvements to be made.

“The Option seems to be a bit easier for everyone as it’s softer and therefore more receptive to generating temperature. In P2, we also started to find a way to get the Prime to work but then, later in the session, we couldn’t quite get back to that sweet-spot.

“If we can solve these issues with the Prime and get it into its correct working range, I think we can be quite competitive this weekend.”

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was fourth on Friday but suffered with much understeer. Saturday has been welcomed with ambient temperatures of 24°C (75°F) by as early as 10am; a figure of 32°C (90°F) is expected later today.

Social Media

Check out our community:

About us

GPUpdate.net, the daily motorsport news website which is celebrating over a decade of the latest in Formula 1, publicly dates back to 1998.
Founded as F1Racing.net, the online magazine is part of JHED Media BV, a registered company operating out of The Netherlands.